I’ve got a three-parter for you this week. We’ll kick off with a project that combines AI, satellites and regenerative agriculture. Then I’ve got updates on adaptation in agriculture and funding for a hot food startup.
Eyes in the sky
Earlier this year I looked into the emerging market for soil carbon offsets, in which companies pay farmers to implement regenerative practices that increase carbon storage in soils. I was struck at the time by a split in the market. Some groups insist it’s essential to take samples to measure the carbon stored in soils, even if the process is time-consuming and expensive. Others argue that we can measure that carbon using models alone.
A third measurement approach I didn’t touch on is remote sensing. This week, a startup called Boomitra announced it had raised $4 million to fund a system that uses AI to derive estimates of soil carbon levels from satellite images of fields. The round was led by Yara Growth Ventures, the investment arm of Yara International, a fertilizer company. Other participants included Chevron Technology Ventures and sustainability investors Tom Steyer and Kat Taylor.
Satellite verification of carbon is a potential game-changer. Much of our planet is imaged daily by a growing fleet of satellites. If these images can be used to accurately measure soil carbon, we could get immediate feedback on whether a particular regenerative practice — say the use of cover crops — is helping to sequester carbon, and so should earn a carbon credit.
“We use many satellites, both public and private, together in a data fusion, throughout the entire electromagnetic spectrum, along with our AI algorithms to measure absolute levels of soil moisture, soil organic carbon and more,” Boomitra founder Aadith Moorthy told me by email. “For training the AIs, we have used millions of real lab soil tests that have been sourced from our various partners in each geographical region.”
Adapt to survive
Sustainable food is often focused on improving existing systems of production. But what happens when climate change imperils those systems? We’re already seeing this happen. In Costa Rica, some farmers are finding that rising temperatures are making coffee production uneconomic. As river flow becomes more erratic in parts of Bangladesh, rice cultivation is becoming increasingly challenging.
These threats will multiply and intensify as temperatures increase and weather patterns shift over the coming decade. The inevitability of that outcome — it’s going to happen no matter how quickly we act to reduce emissions — is leading researchers to urge funders, policymakers and businesses to plan for dramatic changes. In addition to working on incremental improvements, such as new crop varieties, these experts are advocating for what’s called “transformative adaptation.” Think of this as a wholesale change in agricultural practice, such as farmers switching from crops to livestock, or moving production to another area altogether.
The case for transformative adaption is powerfully made in a new report from the World Resources Institute, which includes steps that policymakers and businesses can take to assist. Reading the report, I was struck by the scale of the challenge and our limited understanding of it. The authors convincingly argue that a “massive increase in funding for agricultural adaptation is urgently needed,” while also acknowledging that the costs involved have not yet been calculated.
Still, it’s almost certain that it will be cheaper to act now. And adaption is possible. In Costa Rica, farmers are adapting to rising temperatures by planting citrus in place of coffee. Bangladeshi producers faced with increasingly saline waters are turning to aquaculture. What’s needed now, argues the WRI, is top-down assistance in terms of finance and policy to help others make similar shifts.
Mix and match
A GreenBiz colleague told me a while back that he had made a mean chili using Beyond Meat’s plant-based beef. Recently, he gave me a sheepish update: Adding just a small amount of regular beef turns out to make the chili much tastier.
I get the sheepishness: Adding real beef feels like a step away from the goal of reducing food emissions. But thinking about it afterward, I realized my colleague is on to something. The alternative meats of the future will likely draw on ingredients from multiple sources. Perhaps we’ll see burgers made from a sprinkling of cell-cultured muscle and fat combined with protein from plants. Even if we take my colleague’s route and add a small amount of animal product, emissions will still be much reduced.
I relate this story because a company that may drive this mix-and-match approach just secured significant funding. Motif FoodWorks uses synthetic biology and other techniques to develop ingredients for food manufacturers. Its first product is slated to be a muscle protein for use in alternative meats. It’s also experimenting with a protein derived from corn that the company hopes will make vegan cheese more stretchy and gooey. Investors clearly think Motif is on to something, because last week the company announced that it had raised $226 million. Read more in this Food Navigator profile.
That’s all for this week. As ever, I welcome feedback at [email protected]. I’ll leave you with the stories that caught my attention this week:
Until next week,
Jim
P.S. With a nod to my colleague’s (almost) meat-free chili, our track of the week is James Taylor’s 1972 release Chili Dog.
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